!
BUTCHER
and
‘THE DUCHESS, THE QUEEN, THE WHORE
AND THE HOUSEWIFE: REVENGE TRAGEDY
AND ITS PLACE IN CONTEMPORARY
THEATRE’
by
CHARLES REDHEAD
A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree
of MASTER OF RESEARCH
School of EDACS
Department of Drama and Theatre Arts
University of Birmingham
October 2014
University of Birmingham Research Archive
e-theses repository
This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third
parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect
of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or
as modified by any successor legislation.
Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in
accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further
distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission
of the copyright holder.
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to create a new piece of theatre taking elements from the
revenge tragedy genre then subsequently use that piece as a primary text to analyze
how and if the genre has influenced the creative process of contemporary theatre,
either in the sense of entire generic conventions or stereotypical elements (however
minor).
The first part of the thesis tells a story of the downfall of a woman with a troubled
past; a serious of events similar to the earliest revenge tragedies but transposed into a
contemporary setting. The story elements and character archetypes are disguised
within the façade of a modern thriller, but the old techniques are the core of creating
this engaging piece of theatre.
In the essay, these techniques are deconstructed. At first beginning with references to
the wider framework of the oldest models of revenge tragedy (Senecan and Kydian),
but then focusing in on specific elements with comparison to a varied array of
contemporary writing to prove that the models are still in use to this day.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that while the revenge tragedy formula is considered
archaic, its use in writing is still utilized.
Contents
1. Butcher
1
1.1 Synopsis
1
1.2 Prologue
2
1.3 Act 1
4
1.3.1 Scene 1
4
1.3.2 Scene 2
12
1.3.3 Scene 3
18
1.4 Act 2
32
1.4.1 Scene 1
32
1.4.2 Scene 2
44
1.5 Act 3
51
1.5.1 Scene 1
51
1.5.2 Scene 2
58
1.5.3 Scene 3
65
2. The Duchess, the Queen, the Whore and the Housewife: 69
Revenge Tragedy and its place in contemporary theatre
3. Bibliography
88
3.1 Works Referenced
88
3.2 Works Consulted
90
BUTCHER
Synopsis
Karen Jones is living life in a standstill. She never talks about her past and she isolates
herself from all of her neighbours. Her only source of contact is Martha, who is
constantly barging in, and Bill, the only person she seems to have an amicable
relationship with. As their interactions grow more affectionate, she begins to come
out of her shell, and develop hope that she could build something better out of her life
(a life haunted by mysterious harassment, noises, and trauma). The hope is dashed
when a reporter lies her way into the flat. Karen was branded a child killer by the
press, pilloried by her community, and rejected by society. When old troubles begin
to flare up again, Karen’s fragile mind cannot take it. She breaks and becomes the
‘Baby Butcher’ that everyone thought she was, with disastrous consequences for
herself and the people around her.
Characters
Karen Jones/Kutcher
Bill
Martha Argyle
Linda Cosford
Location: The top floor of a block of council flats. An apartment isolated at the end
of the corridor, up a set of stairs.
Time: The present
1
Notes: a “-“ the end of one sentence at the beginning of another indicated an
interruption. Two “-“ separating a section of a line indicate a sudden change of
thought.
Prologue
Sunday evening. A small flat. Old, but cared for. Kitchen and living room area are
combined, with the kitchen at the back. At the back is a large black door (the front
door). Either side at the front are two doorways. One leads to the bedroom, the other
to the bathroom. It is daytime, but little light gets into the flat. Keys are heard in the
door.
Very slowly, the door is pushed open, revealing KAREN, 50, holding four shopping
bags. As she comes into the flat the heavy door swings to a sudden slamming shut,
which he barely acknowledges. She rests her bags on the kitchen counter and begins
to unpack them, putting each item in a specific cupboard. It appears the food is
organized to an extremely high level. In the final bag is a large amount of alcohol,
which she leaves on the counter.
When she is finished, she fills the kettle with water and turns in on, before crossing
downstage into the living room area. She sits on a sofa and turns on a radio nearby.
Music (with just a hint of static, as if not tuned properly) drifts through the flat. Karen
sits silently listening. Her eyes begin to close and the hint of a smile can be seen.
2
Violent and loud barking from a dog outside jolts her awake. She sits. She stares.
Very faintly, the sound of something coming up the stairs. The quickest of knocks.
Karen wheels round.
KAREN: (approaching the door) Hello?
Silence. Karen is at the door.
KAREN: Bill?
Her hand is on the knob
KAREN: Hello?
She opens the door. No-one. There is a small basket on the floor. Karen quickly looks
down the stairwell, then hurriedly takes the basket and shuts the door. She moves
back to the sofa. The kettle is near boiling.
There is something in the basket wrapped in a blanket. Worry seems to creep across
Karen’s face. She reaches in.
It’s a baby doll with its head pulled off.
3
Karen stares at it. A silent scream. The kettle has boiled. She hurls the doll to one side
and starts frantically walking around the flat, looking around wildly and pulling at
her hair.
As the kettle dies down, there is a sound. It sounds like it could be a rusty gate being
opened, but it could also be a child’s laugh. Karen is still; petrified. She looks around.
She bursts into tears, sinking to the ground.
Blackout.
Act 1
Scene 1
Wednesday evening. Karen is unpacking shopping. Sitting on the sofa, wearing crisp
casual attire, and looking around the house is LINDA COSFORD, 32. She appears
friendly.
LINDA: Interesting place.
KAREN: It’s a bit rough, but it’s home now, and it grows on you.
Beat.
KAREN: Sorry. Getting distracted. Thank you for helping me with the bags.
4
LINDA: Don’t worry about it, Ms. Jones. It’s the least I could do.
Karen remembers something.
KAREN: Oh, yes! Your car. So sorry.
Karen rustles through some papers by the telephone.
KAREN: I’m sure I’ve got a number here somewhere. Sorry.
LINDA: You apologize a lot, don’t you?
KAREN: Sor… I’m just not used to meeting new people.
LINDA: You’ve been here a while?
KAREN: About two years.
LINDA: And no visitors?
KAREN: Not regularly. Everyone keeps themselves to themselves here.
LINDA: Everyone?
5
KAREN: Most people.
LINDA: That’s nice, I suppose.
KAREN: It is.
LINDA: For you?
KAREN: For anyone who likes that sort of thing.
LINDA: Sure.
Beat.
KAREN: I did it again! The number is here somewhere, I promise.
LINDA: (chuckling) I told you not to worry.
KAREN: Of course, sorry.
LINDA: And not to apologize.
Pause.
LINDA: Do you live with anyone?
6
KAREN: No, just me.
LINDA: No boyfriend or husband?
Karen freezes for a moment.
LINDA: If that’s not too personal a-
KAREN: -No one.
LINDA: I’m sorry, I’ve overstepped here. That was very rude.
KAREN: It’s fine.
LINDA: Still I’m-
KAREN: -Honestly. It’s just me here.
LINDA: Who do you talk to?
KAREN: I talk to Bill.
LINDA: Bill?
7
KAREN: He’s from downstairs. He’s a nice man. A good man.
LINDA: I thought you didn’t have any visitors?
KAREN: I wouldn’t consider him a visitor. We live in the same building.
LINDA: Still, he comes over.
KAREN: I guess so.
LINDA: That must be lovely.
KAREN: Well-
LINDA: -I wish I had that. I have a ground floor flat, and there’s only two more
above me. One is empty most of the year; a foreign businessman, I think, and the
other is a man who works nights. I wake up to the sound of snoring. Hardly what
you’d call a community atmosphere.
KAREN: You’re not missing out on anything. Bill’s the only sane one here.
LINDA: You have good chats?
KAREN: (The hint of a smile) Yes.
8
LINDA: That’s lovely. (beat) Don’t your family come to visit?
Karen’s smile fades. She appears glazed over.
KAREN: No. No family.
LINDA: At all?
KAREN: No.
LINDA: I’m sorry. I can see I’ve upset you.
Linda gets up.
LINDA: Are you OK?
KAREN: Fine.
Linda starts leading her to the sofa.
KAREN: I’m fine.
LINDA: Just sit down for a moment.
KAREN: No, I-
9
LINDA: My car can wait. Can I make you a cup of tea? Juice? It’s the least I can do
for upsetting you.
KAREN: Tea is fine. You didn’t upset me.
Linda is at the kettle.
LINDA: You don’t have to put on a brave face, I understand. And I’m sorry. Milk?
KAREN: (Disorientated) Yes. No sugar.
LINDA: Sure.
Linda notices the contents of the bags: some basic groceries and a substantial amount
of alcohol.
LINDA: Are you having a party?
KAREN: What?
LINDA: There’s- Nevermind. Just being silly.
Linda prepares a mug, looks at the kettle and returns to the sofa.
10
KAREN: Sorry. I was just a bit overwhelmed.
LINDA: I didn’t mean to touch a nerve.
KAREN: You couldn’t possibly have known.
LINDA: Still, I apologize unreservedly.
KAREN: It’s fine.
Pause. Karen is making a difficult decision.
KAREN: Something happened. A long time ago. And I moved here. And I don’t
normally talk about this, especially not to a stranger but… It’s not something I
usually… I just want to forget about it. But it’s there. In the corner of my eye. (beat) I
must sound crazy.
LINDA: (Placing her hand on Karen’s) No. Not at all. It’s good to talk, and I want to
listen.
Karen takes a deep breath.
KAREN: I had children. Two boys. They’re not here anymore. People thought…
horrible things. I came here to just keep going.
11
LINDA: More people should know about this.
KAREN: I don’t think-
LINDA: -I can see how much pain you’re in. If you open up, you’ll feel better, Mrs.
Kutcher. I promise you that.
Silence. The kettle boils.
KAREN: I said my name was Jones.
Pause. Linda’s demeanor changes.
LINDA: You did, didn’t you? Fuck.
KAREN: What’s going on?
LINDA: Silly mistake.
KAREN: Who are you?!
Scene 2
The previous Monday. Sitting in the kitchen area, sipping a cup of tea is BILL, 48, a
rough looking but friendly-faced man. Karen is scraping the remains of her lunch into
12
the bin. The remnants land on the now broken basket, which has been stuffed in with
some force.
BILL: Took me a while to get in. That bloody door you’ve put at the top of the stairs-
KAREN: Oh yes. That terrible dog keeps running up here and scratching my door.
Gives me quite a fright.
BILL: That thing’s a bloody menace. Barking all hours of the day.
KAREN: I don’t think they feed that thing. All it seems to do is bark.
BILL: I wish that’s all it did.
KAREN: What do you mean?
BILL: I’ve heard it sort of goes for people if it’s in a bad mood.
KAREN: Oh my!
BILL: If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that bloody hound has a taste for humans.
KAREN: (slight chuckle) Don’t be silly, Bill.
BILL: I can’t help it; it’s all I’m good at.
13
KAREN: I’m sure there are a lot of things you’re good at.
BILL: I thought I was good at making tea until I tasted your brew.
KAREN: I’m well practiced.
BILL: No doubt about that.
Karen laughs. Small, but genuine.
KAREN: It appears you’re good at flattering me, Bill.
BILL: I’d be a bloody liar if I said these chats weren’t a high point in my day.
KAREN: You’re always welcome.
Beat.
Bill takes another sip of tea. He lets out a sigh of pleasure.
BILL: You are a bloody marvel, Karen Jones.
KAREN: I try my best.
14
BILL: If my best were even half of yours, maybe I’d be doing a little better.
KAREN: Always the charmer, Bill.
BILL: I’m glad someone thinks so. Lots of people can’t stand it.
KAREN: Like whom?
BILL: This frosty madam who was round the other day.
KAREN: Who, Martha?
BILL: Pfft, Martha? That woman would never let me get a word in! No, it was this
smartly dressed bird. Says she was from the paper.
The faint sound of a kettle boiling. Karen is unnerved.
KAREN: The paper?
BILL: Yeah. Some bloody tabloid nonsense. Asking about the tenants.
KAREN: Really?
BILL: Yeah. Weird name. I think it was Kutcher.
15
Karen inadvertently drops her plate on the floor. It smashes. Bill leaps up to help her.
BILL: Watch yourself!
KAREN: (on the verge of panic) Sorry, so clumsy! Didn’t know what I was thinking.
BILL: No worries, it happens all the time. I’ve lost three mugs that way. Dustpan and
brush?
KAREN: (pointing to cupboard) In there.
Bill retrieves the dustpan and brush and Karen controls herself.
KAREN: What did you tell this woman from the paper?
BILL: I said I’ve lived here for bloody years and I’ve never met a Kutcher. I
would’ve noticed that smarmy film star walking around.
Bill picks up the full dustpan.
BILL: Don’t worry about this, I’ll run it down to the bins. No point cutting up your
bin bag.
KAREN: Thank you, Bill. You’re so thoughtful.
16
BILL: Oh no, not thought. I don’t know what I’d do with that.
He smiles.
BILL: Shall I check in later on?
KAREN: (a little too quickly) Yes! That would… that would be lovely.
BILL: No problem. I’ll let myself out.
He moves to the door and opens it.
BILL: Take care of yourself, Karen.
KAREN: Thank you. See you soon!
BILL: But not too soon.
He leaves chuckling but gets stuck on the child-proof door at the top of the stairs.
BILL: Bloody door! Where did you get this thing anyway?
He manages to unlock it and go downstairs. The door swings shut. Karen’s smile
fades. She grabs a glass and fills it with the alcohol on the counter and drinks almost
the entire glass in one gulp.
17
She runs and looks out the window, scanning for any unusual signs. She rapidly
draws the curtains shut, refills the glass and sits on the sofa. She looks at the glass
and slams it down on the table before hugging her knees.
KAREN: (quietly, to herself) No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…
Blackout. A dog barking outside.
Scene 3
Tuesday afternoon. The bottles on the counter are almost depleted. Karen is propping
herself up on the kitchen counter. There’s a knock at the door. She looks up, and
staggers over to the door. She opens it, and MARTHA ARGYLE, 43, dressed in illfitting jeans, comfortable shows. She immediately enters the room, almost whacking
KAREN with a large handbag.
MARTHA: Karen, so glad you’re in! You wont believe the day I’ve had! I was
walking up the stairs just now, and I nearly slipped foot over arse in a puddle of - well
I don’t know what it was and I certainly wasn’t going to check – anyway, as I was
finding my feet, I heard the most unbelievable racket coming from the Swarfields! As
you know, he’s been in a bad way since he lost his job at the post office, and she’s
never really forgiven her for kissing her sister on Boxing Day that one time. Now it
sounded like they were having a bit of a lovers tiff – well not tiff, more like bloody
Waterloo! There was F’s and C’s flying everywhere, and I thought to myself Karen,
18
‘there are children in this building! Just because your marriage is going down the
shitter doesn’t mean my kids have to hear that filth!’ Sometimes it’s a nightmare
living in this place!
Beat.
MARTHA: My throat has gone really dry all of a sudden; can I have a cup of tea,
love?
KAREN: Yes, it’s just boiled.
MARTHA: Thank you so much, love. It’s been such a stressful day. I’ve been swept
off my feet. Mind if I sit down?
She moves to the sofa.
MARTHA: I’m sitting down.
She sits down.
MARTHA: I’ve sat down.
Beat.
19
MARTHA: Those bloody youths were back again last night, yelling and screaming.
They kicked over Mr Cooper’s bins. Mind you, as you know, I’ve told Mr Cooper not
to put his bins out that early as it attracts those cats, dozens of them – well, not
dozens. Maybe three. I know exactly who those kids are and I will speak to their
parents, but shouldn’t it be their responsibility?
Karen comes over with a cup of tea
KAREN: There you are.
MARTHA: Thank you love. You’re one of the good ones.
KAREN: So I haven’t done anything wrong?
MARTHA: Of course not! Why would do something wrong? I’m here to ask for
some help.
KAREN: How could I help?
MARTHA: The council clearly isn’t going to do anything about these yobs without a
little bit of prodding. I’ve been going around all the flats with this.
She reaches into her bag and pulls out a large clipboard with a pen attached to the
top.
20
MARTHA: I just need you to sign it.
Karen: Sign it with what?
Martha: (laughing) ‘Sign it with what?’, she says! Your name! I’ve got nearly 200
signatures here; I just need yours to push it over the mark.
She sips her tea and makes a disgruntled noise
MARTHA: I think your kettles broken dear, that tea is cold as ice.
KAREN: (surprised) Oh… sorry…
She takes the cup and returns to the sink
KAREN: I could have sworn –
MARTHA: - Are you all right, love?
KAREN: what?
MARTHA: you seem a bit… you know… (She waves her hand in front of her eyes)
Glazed over.
KAREN: Oh it’s nothing, just a long night
21
Martha’s eyes move to the bottles on the counter
MARTHA: Right. So can I get your signature?
KAREN: I’m not sure Martha. You don’t know what places like that can do with
personal information.
MARTHA: Now don’t be like that, Karen. It’s for the good of the community. We
need to protect ourselves from these villains. You’re in the same position as me;
we’re losing sleep, afraid to go out at night, both enjoy a tipple in the afternoon-
KAREN: - I’m sorry?
MARTHA: Don’t worry about it, love. As you know, I understand more than most
that sometimes you need an injection of excitement to get you through the day. You
just have to be careful that the wrong people don’t catch you doing it. Some people
like to talk.
Pause. Karen slowly bends over and signs the petition.
MARTHA: Splendid! I’m glad to see you showing support for the respectable
members of the community.
KAREN: I don’t think I’d like being on your bad side.
22
Martha laughs. There is a noise of something heavy running up the stairs. Outside the
door; barking jumping, scratching. Karen is unnerved.
MARTHA: Don’t tell me it’s that dog again.
KAREN: Did you close the gate on your way in?
MARTHA: I don’t remember. (To the door) Piss off! (to Karen) I’m going out there.
KAREN: Don’t, it’s huge, it might hurt you.
MARTHA: I’m not scared of it.
As Martha heads to the door, we can hear shouting. The scratching stops. Martha
opens the door. It’s Bill.
BILL: Pest control, at your service.
MARTHA: And what are you doing up here making a nuisance of yourself?
BILL: You’re bloody welcome.
KAREN: Thank you, Bill. I’m not quite sure what we’d have done if you hadn’t
come up.
23
MARTHA: I know what I would’ve done; punched the fucker in the nose.
BILL: Is that how you get men now, Martha?
MARTHA: Watch it.
BILL: Only messing.
KAREN: All the same, thank you.
BILL: Anytime. Why was your gate open?
KAREN: Martha forgot to close it.
MARTHA: I was pre-occupied! Where did you get that thing anyway?
KAREN: That? I found it.
MARTHA: Well, I hope you had it sterilized first.
BILL: Said the actress to the bishop.
MARTHA: Still here, Bill?
24
BILL: I thought since I’m in the neighbourhood, I’d have a world-famous Karen
Jones cup of tea.
MARTHA: I wouldn’t risk it with the quality of her kettle.
BILL: I’ll take my chances.
MARTHA: And what makes you think you can barge in here?
BILL: I thought fending off the Hound of the bloody Baskervilles might count for
something.
KAREN: It does. Come in, Bill. I’ll put the kettle on. You deserve it for being so
brave.
MARTHA: Brave now, is he?
Bill enters, looking at Karen. They smile at each other.
Beat.
MARTHA: I think I should leave. Got to get this petition filled up before the end of
the week, and I’m sure you’d appreciate some private time.
She begins to leave.
25
MARTHA: See you soon, you two, and play nice!
She heads down the stairs. She can be seen closing the gate behind her before the
door swings shut.
Karen begins to fill the kettle up.
BILL: I’ll take tangling with a dog over that bitch any day.
Karen laughs.
BILL: Sorry.
KAREN: No need to apologise.
BILL: Bit rude.
KAREN: I’ve heard worse.
BILL: Shouldn’t swear in front of a lady.
KAREN: Well as soon as a lady’s here, I’ll let you know.
BILL: Karen Jones! Was that a joke?
26
KAREN: Maybe.
Karen clunks the kettle down on the base.
BILL: You seem a bit wibbly-wobbly.
KAREN: I’m ok.
BILL: Are you sure?
KAREN: Definitely.
BILL: That’s a relief. I was getting worried about you. What with you getting all
worked up and doing your Greek wedding routine.
KAREN: Honestly, Bill. I’m doing fine. It’s just… I’m fine.
BILL: You don’t have to put on a brave face with me. I want to know what’s going
on.
KAREN: Why?
BILL: Because I care.
27
KAREN: About what’s going on?
BILL: Yes. And about… yes.
KAREN: I haven’t had much sleep is all. Too much noise. Makes it difficult to nod
off.
BILL: (gesturing to bottles) Is that why you need all this then?
KAREN: That’s not-
BILL: -I’m not judging. That would be a fine day when I can tell someone they’re
having too much sauce.
KAREN: I’m sorry I’m like this.
BILL: Don’t you go saying sorry.
KAREN: It’s been so hard lately.
BILL: Nothing to be ashamed off.
KAREN: I’ve been scared, Bill.
BILL: Scared of what?
28
KAREN: Scared of myself.
BILL: What?
KAREN: Of how I appear to others.
BILL: Well, I think you’re just fine, thank you very much.
KAREN: You don’t understand.
BILL: Explain it to me. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit of an idiot
A tiny snort from Karen. The kettle has boiled.
BILL: Come on.
Pause.
KAREN: Something happened. Years ago, now. It was in the papers. I was in the
papers.
BILL: And?
29
KAREN: Something I’d rather forget. People thought terrible things of me. I hadn’t
done anything wrong.
BILL: All that tabloid bollocks, eh? No need to worry about that now.
KAREN: You don’t know what it’s like.
BILL: You’re right. I don’t. But I do know you. And you’re a bloody lovely woman.
It doesn’t matter to me what happened years ago. You’re not some woman from the
past. You’re Karen Jones, you live here, you make a stellar cup of tea, and you’re
bloody lovely.
KAREN: Bill…
BILL: I don’t read the tabloids for news anyway. Just sports. What could an idiot do
with news?
KAREN: Thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve had someone I can trust.
BILL: You can rely on me. Wouldn’t want to jeopardise my tea supply, would I?
Speaking of which…
Bill begins to head to the kettle.
KAREN: I’ll get it.
30
They almost walk into each other.
BILL: Sorry.
Pause. They are looking at each other. In one fast motion, Karen kisses Bill. Quick,
but intense. She withdraws almost as rapidly.
KAREN: Bill… I’m sorry… I didn’t… I mean…
BILL: It’s alright.
KAREN: No, I’m really, really-
BILL: -Not a problem.
KAREN: Maybe you should-
BILL: -Come back later? Sure.
KAREN: Thanks.
Bill exits, smiling. Karen cradles her head, thinking worriedly. A long, pensive
silence. She smiles to herself.
31
Silence again.
The quiet sound of rattling. Karen looks up and looks towards the door. The noise is
coming from the other side, getting louder and louder. The stairwell gate is being
shaken violently with greater and greater intensity. Karen looks at the door horrified
as the noise continues to build and build from behind it until…
Blackout. A dog barks outside.
END OF ACT
Act 2
Scene 1
Wednesday evening. Karen is staring at Linda. Linda is looking down. Working out
her options. Finally, she addresses Karen. She is colder, more business-like.
LINDA: All right then. Karen, my name is Linda Cosford, I’m a reporter with the
Daily Direct.
KAREN: If you don’t get out of my house now-
32
LINDA: -The last thing you want is an argument attracting your neighbors. What
would Bill think?
KAREN: How-?
LINDA: -The details and morals are unimportant. What matters is your story.
KAREN: (Broken) You all had your story.
LINDA: Not this story.
KAREN: What?
LINDA: Human interest. There are a lot of people who would be interested in this.
KAREN: No.
LINDA: You could get your side of the story out to the masses.
KAREN: The Direct… called me-
LINDA: “Karen Kutcher: Baby Butcher”, I’m aware.
KAREN: So if you think-
33
LINDA: -Karen, if you cooperate with me, the world will finally hear your side of the
story.
KAREN: No.
LINDA: If you don’t want to give a proper interview, that’s fine.
She reaches into her jacket and removes a Dictaphone and places it on the table.
LINDA: I’ve got enough to write a decent article. Of course, your perspective won’t
be well represented, but you don’t want to give an interview.
KAREN: Don’t…
LINDA: If you’re this upset, you won’t be interested in seeing what else I have.
KAREN: Please…
LINDA: The article will be released later this week; it might even be online by
tomorrow.
She places the Dictaphone back in her jacket and gets up.
LINDA: Thank you for your time, Mrs. Kutcher.
34
KAREN: No…
Linda moves to the door.
KAREN: (Weakly) I’ll talk.
Linda turns around.
KAREN: I’ll talk.
Linda returns to the sofa and places the Dictaphone back on the table.
LINDA: Wonderful. Let’s begin. You murdered your sons five years ago, correct?
KAREN: I-
LINDA: I apologize. You allegedly murdered your sons five years ago?
KAREN: It was an accident. Cot death.
LINDA: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome?
KAREN: Yes.
LINDA: Both children within the space of two weeks?
35
KAREN: That’s what happened.
LINDA: What does your husband think about all of this?
KAREN: James Kutcher is no longer my husband.
LINDA: I did not. How insensitive of me. Mrs. Kutcher, do you know the statistical
odds of losing two children to SIDS are?
KAREN: No.
LINDA: Over seventy million to one. Why do you expect us to believe that’s what
happened?
KAREN: That is what happened.
LINDA: And you did nothing to save your children?
KAREN: I didn’t know. Don’t you think I would’ve saved them? What do you want?
LINDA: I want the truth of what happened, Mrs. Kutcher. The full story. Take a look
at this.
36
Linda reaches into her bag and pulls out an old baby monitor. She places it on the
table. Karen is staring at it.
Pause.
LINDA: This is from your house. But you know that already, don’t you, Mrs.
Kutcher? If your son’s death was due to this syndrome, why didn’t you help him
when you must have heard him?
Silence.
Karen looks down.
KAREN: Michael slept in our room. He was younger, so we needed to keep a closer
eye on him. We put William’s crib in the spare room across the hall. Thought he’d
sleep better that way. When I woke up, Michael was crying. No idea why he did.
Must have sensed it. I put my ear to the monitor to hear if the cries had woken up
William. It was quiet. I must have complained to James endless times about the noise.
It wasn’t that I was annoyed; just scared. Scared of hearing my children in pain. I
learned how terrifying silence could be. I thought he might have gotten out of the cot,
so I was relieved when I saw him. He hadn’t been stolen away in the night like all
those terrible stories James and me had read about. But then… I couldn’t see his toes.
He had the most perfect little toes. I got closer to the cot, and I couldn’t see his face; it
was in the pillow. He was so still; like a doll had replaced him. And it was so quiet.
No noise. No wind. No sound of my Will breathing. I turned him over. I knew he was
gone, but I didn’t want to believe it.
37
LINDA: Mrs. Kutcher, your son had broken ribs. His death was not immaculate.
KAREN: I tried to get him to breathe. I was begging him, willing him to open his
eyes and smile, but he was still. I put my hands on his chest; so small my fingers were
touching the blanket. I pushed. And again. And again. I just wanted him to do
something. When I finally heard a sound I thought it was a branch snapping off a tree
outside. A tiny crack. When I looked down, my hands were inside his chest. Like I
was ripping out his heart. I didn’t scream. The quiet had gotten inside me. Freezing
cold and boiling hot at the same time. Michael was still crying. I don’t know how
long I was there looking at Will. He didn’t look at peace. He looked lost. He just
wanted his mummy. I was still looking at him when I heard James’ screaming from
behind me. Dogs starting barking all down the street, people running out of their
houses. I can’t recall the next few days, except the stares of strangers. Even the police
had disgust in their eyes.
LINDA: They suspected you.
KAREN: I could see the way they looked at me as they turned over the room. Always
resting their hands on James’ shoulder; reassuring him, and treating me like I was
diseased. It got to him. They got to him. He wouldn’t let me hold Michael or put him
to bed. He said he knew it was a cruel freak event, but he never looked at me when he
said it.
LINDA: What about a week later?
38
KAREN: Michael…
LINDA: Yes.
KAREN: James woke up first. He didn’t make a sound. The air was sucked out of
him just like me. That quiet had come into our bedroom and taken the breath from my
husband and my son. Michael had been crying a lot. He hadn’t seen his brother and he
didn’t know why, so I gave him one of his brother’s toys. A little crocodile. It still
smelt like William. I suppose that’s why Michael wanted to be so close to it. Once
James pulled his head away, I could see he had a little smile. He was with his brother
again...
She trails off.
LINDA: What then?
Pause.
KAREN: The police came back to the house. Their looks were just as hard, but this
time with a fire I had never seen before. They said I had murdered my boys. They
took me away. I begged James to help me, but he stood there, looking at me like I was
a stranger, not saying anything. That quiet had stuck to him. The days in the cell
seemed endless. I didn’t speak; I had no one to speak to, especially not the man who
told me he was going to defend me in court. I saw the look in his eyes.
39
LINDA: What about the trial?
KAREN: Everyone thought I was a monster. That I had killed my children. That I
had lied to everyone.
LINDA: It was reported you cried when presented with some of the evidence. Many
people said that was guilt.
KAREN: They shoved the crocodile in my face and told me how I had used it to
suffocate my son.
LINDA: Regardless, many people thought - think – you’re guilty.
KAREN: I was found innocent.
LINDA: The DNA evidence was contaminated and the judge declared that ‘media
bias’ should not influence the jury.
KAREN: You had decided who I was before you knew anything about me.
LINDA: We knew the facts, and we drew a conclusion. Much like a jury, actually.
KAREN: I’m innocent.
40
LINDA: Your husband didn’t believe that.
KAREN: That’s not true.
LINDA: Did he, or did he not file for divorce during your initial time in prison?
Pause.
LINDA: Well?
KAREN: Yes.
LINDA: I see.
KAREN: He couldn’t go back. It hurt him too much. I never heard a word from him
after the night Michael died.
LINDA: Or maybe he wanted to rebuild his life without the cause of all his pain.
KAREN: I thought I’d be able to bury my children. James had them cremated. He has
the urn. I can never see it. I couldn’t say goodbye to my boys.
LINDA: Mrs. Kutcher-
KAREN: -Michael hadn’t even said his first word.
41
LINDA: We’re getting off topic.
KAREN: I thought you wanted the real story.
LINDA: The real story is the now, not the then.
KAREN: This is with me everyday.
LINDA: I understand, but the important aspect is your life now.
KAREN: I don’t have a life. Michael and William, they were my life.
LINDA: But you moved on, you continued living.
KAREN: “Keeping going” and “moving on” are not the same thing.
LINDA: Now, we’re just debating semantics, Mrs. Kutcher.
KAREN: I don’t like being called that.
LINDA: Why not? It’s who you are.
KAREN: It’s who I was. You people just think that’s all I am.
42
LINDA: You keep doing that, don’t you? The “us vs. them” mentality. These issues
aren’t black and white, Mrs. Kutcher. It may reassure you to think that all the people
judging you lead perfect lives in beautiful houses, but that’s simply immature. All
around the country, families are suffering terrible tragedies and loss. They conduct
stony-faced press conferences and appeal to the public and wait. They wait and they
wait and they wait. The very lucky ones get to rebuild. The lucky ones get a body. In
a wood, by the train tracks, floating along a river, whatever. They share their tragedy
with the public, and that is a gift. The gift of catharsis.
KAREN: I don’t care about other families.
LINDA: Of course not. Five years ago there was a grieving father and an absent
mother. There was the term ‘suspicious circumstances’ there were numbers, statistics
of impossibilities. And there was a picture of an unfeeling woman being put into the
back of a van.
KAREN: Stop it! Just stop it!
LINDA: You didn’t say anything, you didn’t try to convey this innocence you speak
about now. You were cold, Karen. Unfeeling.
KAREN: (bringing her fist down on the table) HOW DARE YOU! You have no idea
about what I’ve been through! To have that torn away from you! This is hell, not just
another fucking scoop!
Karen is shaking. Linda notes this.
43
LINDA: You do get quite angry when stressed, don’t you?
Karen slumps back in the chair. Silence.
LINDA: You’re wrong by the way. (beat) I wanted this story. People get to disappear
sometimes. No resolution. Or answers. It’s not fair.
Linda is lost in thought for a moment.
KAREN: Please-
LINDA: -It’s all right, Mrs. Kutcher. It’ll be over soon.
Scene 2
Thursday afternoon. Karen is nowhere to be seen. Martha is in the kitchen, rooting
through cupboards. On the kitchen counter is a large big bag, filled with bottles.
MARTHA: Come on, there’s got to be something else here.
Footsteps up the stairs; the gate opens and closes, keys in the door. Karen enters.
KAREN: Martha? How did you get in here?
44
MARTHA: Got a master key. I thought that as we had an inhuman tenant here, we
should probably check there isn’t anything unsavoury knocking about.
KAREN: I don’t understand.
MARTHA: Oh, no?
She slams a newspaper on the table.
MARTHA: Maybe you haven’t been past a newsstand today, but I have. Or do you
think I’m a (reading from the article) “painful reminder of how far you fell from a
comfortable middle class life”?
KAREN: The article.
MARTHA: The penny drops.
KAREN: I told her the truth. Martha, you have to listen-
MARTHA: -Don’t you fucking try and do that. Don’t tell me what to do. You may
think I’m scum, but I’m not a monster.
KAREN: That’s not what happened.
45
MARTHA: Yeah, I read about this. How you’re still harping on about winning a cot
death rollover. What was it the article said? “Maintaining her delusion”. You must
really think I’m thick.
KAREN: Martha-
MARTHA: -Shut it! I can’t believe I didn’t recognise you. Thought I had an eye for
the bad ones. I’ll never make that mistake again.
KAREN: This is my home.
MARTHA: Your home, is it? Thought you could tuck yourself away up here? This is
a community. Kids play in the corridors. Probably got the gate to trap them. Probably
a sick souvenir .
KAREN: Martha, I think you should leave.
MARTHA: You think, do you? And what are you going to do if I refuse? Kill me?
I’m not your type, love; I’m out of nappies and I can put up a fight. I’m not going to
stand for everyone out there thinking the people round here are criminals who look
out for each other.
KAREN: Why do you have a bag?
MARTHA: What, this?
46
She taps the bag.
MARTHA: Just a bit of evidence. “One man’s trash” and all that. The Daily Direct
will be very interested in this. “Baby Butcher Boozer”. Nice little companion piece, I
think. Oh, I’ve got some stories to tell them. Like how the government pays for a
monster to get pissed and how she’s trying to fuck every man in the building.
KAREN: Martha, please!
MARTHA: Please? Is that what your little boy said? How could you? I’ve got a little
girl and I could never… you’re disgusting. Just a pathetic cunt.
KAREN: (Beginning to cry) I didn’t-
MARTHA: Here we go. Meryl Streep, everyone! Watch her trot out the story of her
sheer fucking bad luck.
Bill comes up the stairs and through the open doorway.
BILL: Karen. Everyone’s talking. About you… the paper… someone showed me.
Did you?
KAREN: Bill, that’s not what happened! Everyone’s twisting the facts!
47
MARTHA: Here’s lover boy. Hope you weren’t planning on having kids, Bill!
BILL: Not now, Martha!
MARTHA: I’m going. Being in the company of scum leaves bad taste in my mouth.
She picks up the bin bag and heads for the door.
MARTHA: (On her way out) I don’t think many people in this building will be
happy sharing space with a murderer and a whore. Perhaps I’ll get a petition round.
She exits.
KAREN: Bill-
BILL: What did you do, Karen?
KAREN: (running and grabbing him) Nothing! I didn’t do anything! You have to
believe me!
Silence, Bill slowly pushes Karen away.
KAREN: Bill?
BILL: Karen… Little boys, Karen.
48
KAREN: Bill.
BILL: Little boys. I can’t believe-
KAREN: -Because it’s not true! It’s not true, Bill!
BILL: I need some time-
KAREN: You believe me, don’t you?
Pause.
KAREN: Bill, I’m begging you!
BILL: I’m sorry, Karen.
He begins to leave.
KAREN: I CAN’T BE ALONE AGAIN!
He ignores her and exits, swinging the door closed behind him. Karen is broken.
KAREN: I won’t…
49
Suddenly the radio switches on by itself music fades in and out between the loud
static. Karen knocks it off of the table in frustration, but it continues to play. The
kettle starts to boil. She wheels around, grabs it, and hurls it into the sink. Again, the
noise does not stop. Outside, a dog starts barking. At the same time, a dog is barking
and scratching outside her door. She wheels around again, wide-eyed with panic and
terrors.
The noises repeat, getting louder and louder. Karen grabs a bottle from the counter
and hurls it at the door, where it smashes.
The noises get louder, this time accompanied by a small crack; like a branch
snapping off a tree. Karen turns around and around before collapsing to the ground.
It is hard to tell whether she is crying or laughing. The lights are flickering,
sometimes leaving Karen in darkness.
The noises grow deafeningly loud, the crack now the volume and density of a
thunderclap. Just before the room is torn apart by the cacophony, the sound suddenly
cuts into a dead silence. Karen looks up.
KAREN: Quiet…
The baby monitor crackles to life. A cry. Karen laughs.
Snap to black.
50
END OF ACT.
Act 3
Scene 1
Friday night. Dark. Dog barking in the distance. A small amount of light. The flat
looks empty. A slow clunk of a key in the door. Martha enters with trepidation. As the
door moves open we can see that ‘BITCH’ has been written on the door in spraypaint. She looks around. There is no one in sight. She moves further and further into
the flat, her shoes cracking the broken glass at her feet, eventually making her way
over to the kitchen cupboards to resume what she started, but not before eyeing up the
radio, and putting it in her empty bin bag.
As she rifles through the cupboards once more, a figure appears in the doorway to the
bedroom accompanied by the sound of dripping. Martha empties the cupboard. She is
about to head for the door, but she notices the baby monitor. It crackles briefly.
Martha reaches out to take it.
KAREN: No.
Karen emerges from her bedroom wearing a dressing gown. She looks haggard and
disconnected, but speaks with uncharacteristic calm.
KAREN: I need that.
51
MARTHA: What are you doing here? Thought you’d be gone by now.
KAREN: Why are you taking my things, Martha?
MARTHA: All this is fair game. Just grabbing it before this place gets burnt down.
KAREN: I just want to live in peace.
MARTHA: Then you shouldn’t have done that to your kids.
No response. Martha is beginning to feel uncomfortable.
MARTHA: Thank god for that woman from the papers, otherwise we would’ve
never known about you.
KAREN: Right.
MARTHA: Lived here right under our roses.
KAREN: Right.
MARTHA: I mean, at first I thought she was weird. Walking around late at night,
staring at the flats. Nearly called the police.
KAREN: You should have done. She’s the real criminal.
52
MARTHA: Tell that to your boys.
KAREN: They have names.
MARTHA: I don’t care. Let me through Karen. Your life is fucked up as it is without
me involved
Martha moves to leave, Karen blocks the door.
KAREN: I won’t let you take my things.
MARTHA: If you don’t want me to take them, you’ll have to stop me.
KAREN: I have every right to. You are an intruder in my home.
MARTHA: If you can’t even take on a dog, how do you expect to take me on?
No response.
MARTHA: That’s what I thought.
She moves towards the baby monitor.
53
MARTHA: I’ll be taking this, then. Make me ill just thinking of you having one of
these.
KAREN: Don’t take that.
MARTHA: Then stop me.
KAREN: Don’t take that.
MARTHA: Then come over here!
KAREN: Be quiet.
MARTHA: Stop me!
KAREN: Shut up!
MARTHA: Why?!
KAREN: You’ll wake the boys!
Karen pounces on Martha, driving her back towards the front door, smacking her
head against it. Karen wrestles her to the floor. Martha screams.
54
KAREN: Go on, Martha. Nobody is coming up. Scared of being seen near me, I
suppose. Don’t want to be mistaken for my friends. I guess I’m doing you a favour.
She pulls Martha up by the hair.
KAREN: No one would think we got along now.
MARTHA: You’re crazy.
KAREN: You saw the woman from the paper.
MARTHA: Yes! So what? Let me go!
KAREN: What was she doing?
MARTHA: I told you!
KAREN: Tell me again.
MARTHA: She was just looking around!
KAREN: I don’t believe that. You thought you could make some money from the
paper. Sell my story.
MARTHA: I didn’t, I swear.
55
Karen smacks her head against the floor.
KAREN: You’re always sticking your nose in. Getting your way. Writing petitions.
MARTHA: Please let me go!
KAREN: The woman from the paper.
MARTHA: She was just walking around, ok? She had some fucking basket with her,
but I didn’t ask why. Said if I could give her anything she didn’t pick up on I’d get
money. That’s everything!
KAREN: Everything?
MARTHA: Yes! Please!
KAREN: You could have left me alone, Martha.
MARTHA: I’m sorry!
KAREN: You’re sorry now. You could pick on Karen Jones. She just wanted a
simple, quiet life. Things are different now.
Karen lets go and stands up. Martha starts to clamber up, but Karen pushes her over.
56
KAREN: You only see me as the “Baby Butcher”.
MARTHA: No, that’s not true! Just let me go. I can straighten things out. Talk to
people, ok?
KAREN: I want you to think about something.
MARTHA: Anything!
Karen advances on Martha
KAREN: Think about your daughter.
MARTHA: What?
KAREN: Think about how much you’d miss her if you were gone.
MARTHA: Please, Karen-
KAREN: -SHUT UP! There’s too much NOISE! Think about how much she’s going
to miss you.
MARTHA: Karen-
57
KAREN: -You didn’t want to know Karen. She made you sick.
Karen grabs Martha’s hair and drags her into the bathroom, Martha screaming all
the way.
KAREN: You wanted to see the Butcher.
She shuts the door. Blackout. Martha’s screams fade. Silence.
Scene 2
Saturday night. Karen is busying herself around the kitchen. Something is cooking in
the oven. A shape wrapped in tinfoil sits on the counter. The sound of footsteps up the
stairs and banging on the door.
BILL: (Outside) Karen! Open this bloody door!
Karen looks up happily. She rushes over to the door and throws it open.
KAREN: Bill! Do come in. Care for some tea?
Bill enters.
BILL: Don’t fuck about, Karen. No one’s seen Martha all day. I want to know where
she is.
58
KAREN: She came round for a chat. She decided to stay.
BILL: Karen, Tell me where Martha is.
KAREN: I think she went to the bathroom to freshen up.
Bill walks in quick long strides to the bathroom. Karen does the same to the door,
promptly locking it, and heading back into the kitchen, leaving the key on the counter.
BILL: (OS) Jesus!
He stumbles out of the bathroom, horrified.
BILL: What have you done?
KAREN: I didn’t like the way she looked at me. Or talked to me. I fixed both.
BILL: Oh my god!
KAREN: She was driving a wedge between us. Now we can enjoy each other’s
company. Dinner?
Bill heads to the door. Tugging on it.
59
BILL: Where is the key, Karen?
KAREN: Have some dinner.
BILL: Where is the key?
KAREN: After dinner.
BILL: Let me out!
KAREN: Bill. Have. Some. Dinner.
Karen looks directly at Bill. A sudden chill.
BILL: OK, Karen. But just a little bit, and then I have to go.
KAREN: It’s a deal. Take a seat.
Bill moves to the sofa and sits down. Karen opens the oven and takes out an
indeterminable substance in a casserole dish. She ladles large amounts into a bowl
and presents it to Bill.
KAREN: Eat.
He eats. It is horrible.
60
KAREN: I’ve never cooked it before. I hope you like it.
BILL: It’s… lovely.
KAREN: I’m so happy to hear it. Tea?
BILL: Uh…
Karen bustles back into the kitchen.
BILL: I really should be going soon, Karen.
KAREN: Not until after tea.
BILL: Just a sip.
KAREN: Alright then, you can take the leftovers with you. But you must promise to
come back.
BILL: Sure.
KAREN: (gesturing) In the foil over here.
BILL: Do you want me to open it?
61
KAREN: I would never tell you what to do, Bill.
Bill crosses to the kitchen area, and begins unwrapping the tin foil. Karen picks up
the kettle and a mug.
KAREN: I’ve been doing some thinking recently. What if everyone is right about
me? I get confused so easily I might have muddled things up in my head. And
everyone says I did it. Not one person believes me. Maybe I’ve been living a lie. As
long as I embrace what I really am, I can be happy again. It’s what Mikey and
William want. They told me.
Bill has finished unwrapping his present. It’s the severed head of a dog. He retches.
KAREN: I thought you’d like it. It was the only part of it I couldn’t cook.
Bill looks at the oven. He retches more violently.
KAREN: Ready for your tea, Bill?
Karen slams the kettle against Bill’s head, launching his body sideways. Bill begins
desperately crawling backwards. Karen is walking towards him.
KAREN: The more I thought about it; the more I thought that the boys would never
forgive me if I tried to replace them. And everyone thinks the worst of me for killing
62
kids now, imagine if I did it again? I have to take steps to fix that. So I can be the
person everybody wants me to be.
Karen grabs a large knife from the counter.
KAREN: Temptation is a terrible thing, Bill.
Bill spies the key.
BILL: I’ve done nothing wrong.
KAREN: (getting angry) Whether you’ve actually done anything wrong is irrelevant.
It’s up to everyone else to decide.
BILL: We can still both get out of this.
KAREN: Why would you want to leave Bill? Don’t you trust me?
BILL: You’re scaring me.
KAREN: You don’t know what being scared is!
Karen lunges. Bill violently shoves her to one side, grabs the key and heads for the
door. The key sticks, and as he is desperately trying to pull it open, Karen slashes at
63
him with the knife. He dodges and moves further into the flat. Karen eyes him, knife
pointed. A standoff.
BILL: Are you going to kill me, Karen?
Silence.
BILL: Is this who you are?
Silence.
BILL: Is this what you want to be?
Silence. Karen’s face slowly turns from rage into despair. She bursts into tears and
drops the knife to the floor. Bill hurriedly crosses past her and opens the door. He
looks back at her briefly before vanishing through the gate and down the stairs, the
door closing behind him. Still crying, Karen crosses to the cooker and turns on all the
gas valves, closes the window and finally goes and sits on the sofa. There is a hissing.
She picks up the baby monitor and looks at it with a deep affection, cradling it in her
arms. She closes her eyes.
KAREN: (fading) Will. Mikey. Can you hear that? Nice and peaceful.
Karen becomes still. The hissing continues. The sirens are getting closer. The sun is
rising.
64
Blackout.
Scene 3
Wednesday evening. Karen is very still. Linda peers at her.
LINDA: Just one final question Mrs. Kutcher. If your life was so hard did you not
consider ending it?
KAREN: What?
LINDA: I’m just trying to understand your mind-set.
KAREN: I have thought about joining my boys. Some days it’s all I can think about.
There’s so much noise in my head. I just want it to stop.
LINDA: Maybe you’re scared of the quiet.
KAREN: I don’t know.
LINDA: You hate noise, but you fear the quiet. Interesting, but you didn’t answer my
question.
KAREN: What would you think if I did that? That I was mad?
65
LINDA: It’s not my place to think that. The public decides.
KAREN: Like they haven’t decided already.
LINDA: You still haven’t answered my question.
KAREN: There’s one thing that I hold on to. The one thing that keeps me going.
LINDA: Which is?
KAREN: Hope.
LINDA: Sure.
KAREN: Hope that someone will see my true self, and not the witch from the papers.
LINDA: You still maintain that you are innocent.
KAREN: Yes.
LINDA: That your faith in people will imbue them with faith in you.
KAREN: Yes. There’s nothing else to hang onto.
66
LINDA: Indeed.
She begins to rise.
LINDA: I think I’ve got everything I need.
KAREN: I wouldn’t expect you to understand.
LINDA: I’m sorry?
KAREN: You have a family to go back to. People who love you.
LINDA: Not many. No husband or kids. I had a brother… Thank you for your time,
Mrs. Kutcher.
KAREN: Jones. Ms. Jones.
LINDA: (Heading to the door) Of course. The article should appear in Thursday’s
edition.
KAREN: Tell them the real story.
Linda opens the door and steps through. She turns around.
LINDA: Trust me; after this, people will know who you really are.
67
The door swings shut. A dog is barking outside. Karen looks to the window.
Fade to black.
END.
68
!
The Duchess, the Queen, the Whore and the Housewife:
Revenge Tragedy and its place in contemporary theatre
In modern circles, the term ‘Revenge Tragedy’ is not a generic term.
Specifically it is used to categorize not only the thematic evidence of a body of work,
but also the time period in which it was produced (in this case, the mid-1580s to the
early 1640s). By this definition, the Revenge Tragedy represents a specific phase in
playwriting; one which was left behind centuries ago. However, this could be
considered a simplistic approach to theatre analysis. The effect of the Revenge
Tragedy boom has reverberated throughout the years and influenced multiple works.
Contemporary theatre has experienced a blurring of the lines in how works are
categorized. Plays with all the hallmarks of the Revenge Tragedy may now be labeled
with phrases such as “vengeance thriller” or even as broad a term as “darkly comic
mystery” simply because as theatre (and playwriting) progresses, the definitions are
not as clear.
Throughout this essay, I shall explore the definitions and elements of the
Revenge Tragedy (through academic analysis and the pieces of the time period) to see
how they correlate with contemporary theatre. This should reveal that the generic
qualities of the Revenge Tragedy are still engaging to both a theatre audience and the
playwrights that produce this work. I will also explore how contemporary theatre
writing has expanded and enhanced upon some of these elements, with focus on the
use of gender roles within the genre. Through comparisons between works by writers
such as Shakespeare, Kyd, Middleton, Webster, and even Euripides, to modern
playwrights such as Buffini, Kane, and Ravenhill (as well as the accompanying thesis
play Butcher), I will discover that Revenge Tragedy may not just be a group of works
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from specific time periods, but a series of specific elements and ideas that remain just
as hard-hitting, provocative and relevant in contemporary usage as they did in the
Jacobean and Elizabethan era.
The essential elements of the traditional Revenge Tragedy pre-date the
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods where they saw a wider cultural success. It is
believed by some that what first started the rise of the genre was the restaging of
works by Seneca the Younger. A successful playwright in the Silver Age of Latin
Literature, it could be argued that Seneca built on the models from earlier works by
Euripides. Hippolytus features characters vengeance on all sides. Athena seeks
vengeance on Hippolytus for lack of vengeance, the queen Phaedra is driven into
madness (which will become a popular feature of Revenge Tragedy) and seeks
revenge on Hippolytus for spurning her advances, and Theseus summons the power of
the Gods to exact revenge on Hippolytus. While not the format the genre is now
infamous for, Euripides’ popularity and the success of the play undoubtedly had an
influence on the later generations. Seneca crafted a kind of tragedy that could be used
both for social comment, and for visceral thrills.
The Senecan model features elements easy to spot in the renaissance era
revenge tragedies. The period of disguise, madness (whether a ruse or not), and
violence at a gathering, can be seen in early examples such as Titus Andronicus and
Hamlet. These templates are not rigid, but simply recur throughout revenge writing.
However, their reappearance is not a mere reference, but a contemporary use of this
early framework. Even as early as the Late Renaissance, these conventions and
expectations were being explored and exploited. In the build-up to the final act of
John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, the audience are lead to believe that the
protagonists Giovanni and Annabella (siblings in a romantic engagement) are to face
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humiliation and murder at the birthday feast of Soranzo (the man who has hired
banditti to massacre them). When the feast finally comes, Giovanni enters to reveal
that he has murdered Annabella already, producing her heart on a dagger. Ford’s
inverting of traditional Revenge Tragedy conventions allows him to showcase ‘how
distorted Giovanni’s thinking has become’ (Clare, pg. 111, 2006).
When Sarah Kane was offered a commission to adapt a Greek or Roman
classic, it appears she decided to take the traditional Senecan model and adapt it for
the modern era of plays, with a loose adaptation of Seneca’s Phaedra. Phaedra’s
Love manages to wield a power of shock that Seneca’s did in ancient Greece through
hard, brutal realism of the sex and violence (which Kane insisted upon). The classic
Revenge Tragedy elements are in place, but put in modern realistic terms, the
audience is faced not with the grandeur of the great tragedians, but with the very real
emotions of rejection, rage, and wrath. Erica Bexley states that ‘an audience at
Phaedra’s Love experiences acts of sex and violence in a manner analogous to
Hippolytus. The facticity of these events strikes us and delays our process of
interpretation’ (pg. 375, 2009). This fusion of the Senecan model and the “in-yerface” movement is testament to the power of the Revenge Tragedy in a
contempoarary environment.
This reinvention of tropes has continued into the 21st Century. In Moira
Buffini’s play Dinner, Paige plans a dinner party for her husband and friends, which
turns out to be an elaborate plan to humiliate and abuse her guests (very much in
keeping with the generic tropes), but instead of having the party be merely a location
for the vengeance, it is an essential part of the protagonist’s disguise. Paige’s method
of disguise is not a physical, but an emotional one; the grinning, pleasant hostess. In
correlation, her method of punishment is not a physical decimation. She dies at the
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hands of the Waiter to release her from her torture and leave the party attendees in it
(in fact, the set and place dissolves into a dark, foggy wasteland in her absence).
Eileen Jorge Allman comments on how the use of disguise (figurative or literal)
empowers revenge protagonists:
Disguise is, of course, one of the genre’s conventions, the revenger’s
assumption of a protective mask. It is also, however, his first step in
fashioning himself as the tyrant’s equal. In creating a disguise, the revenge
acquires two bodies: his authored self, ephemeral and dispensable; and his
authoring self, godlike in its self-creation. Disguise, he finds, allows him to
fashion others as well as himself: he can set scenes, prompt action, write
dialogue, and stage everything from impromptu sketches to formal masques.
Most important, he can snatch control of the text from the tyrant. Like him, he
is now author of his world’s law and, therefore above an outside it. (Allman,
pg.59, 1999)
Paige’s disguise allows her to take control of her life, and decide how it ends.
Karen has two disguises in Butcher. Like a Revenge Tragedy protagonist, she masks
herself in her new identity as “Karen Jones” in an attempt to define her life her way
and escape the tyrant of the persecuting society. The failure of this disguise is what
begins her quest for revenge and upon her turn to madness (another Revenge Tragedy
staple) she adopts a new disguise. From Karen’s perspective, the disguise is to
reassure guests, to be the loving wife and mother. To an audience, this ruse is clearly
seen through to not only make an audience uncomfortable, but to portray the violence
that will inevitably follow. Modern playwriting has adapted elements of the Senecan
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model and used them to create powerful and engaging work. For example, Karen’s
vengeance is impotent at best, with no real target, and Dinner is more the final act of
the model rather than the complete package, but it is these twists that assert the
importance of Revenge Tragedy motifs in contemporary theatre and highlight their
relevance in playwriting.
While the era of Latin Literature laid the foundations for the Revenge Tragedy
model, most scholars cite Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy as ‘the prototype of
Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy’ (Kloke, pg. 8, 2007). Melanie Kloke’s paper Hamlet
and the Genre of Revenge Tragedy outlines the key roles of the ‘Kydian’ Formula for
Revenge Tragedy. Analysis and comparison of these examples provides an important
insight into how the genre has evolved and continued to be enjoyed by audiences. The
protagonist, dubbed ‘the Avenger’, has several key qualities:
The avenger is not a bloody thirsty criminal but a very complex
character, who has to deal with an unjust and difficult situation. In this
situation he starts to lose the interest in his life, which results in madness and
even in suicidal fantasies… Even though he has the audience’s sympathy
during the play, he will be condemned for his bloody murder in the end… It is
typical for the avenger of the Revenge Tragedy to that he is inferior to the
villain concerning political power and status… During the play the avenger
usually undergoes a change of personality, which is often the shift from a
silent man acting in privacy to one who puts himself in the center of the play.
(Kloke, pg. 10, 2007)
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This framework has been utilized not only for Revenge Tragedy protagonists,
but also dramatic protagonists as a whole. It immediately creates a sense of struggle,
and challenges an audience’s perceptions, by either endearing the character to the
audience and revealing a hidden truth, or presenting an unsympathetic figure and
humanizing them. Hamlet is the best-known example of ‘the avenger’ archetype, but
many protagonists, male and female, have incorporated these elements. Whilst not the
titular character and pre-dating the title of Revenge Tragedy, Phaedra of Hippolytus is
not only ensconced in a difficult situation, but also inferior to Hippolytus due to her
gender, descends into madness, and places herself into the center of attention by
following through with her suicidal fantasies.
For a more unconventional modern take on the genre, the nameless (and
numberless, due to lack of line allocation) protagonist/s of Pool (No Water) by Mark
Ravenhill provide an intriguing portrayal. The world of the play in not concerned with
matters of state and politics (as per the grander tradition of older revenge tragedies),
but instead the more contemporary cut-throat world of art, in which they are the
inferior, left behind by the whirlwind success of another colleague. An accident
allows the avenger/s to step into the spotlight, using their colleague’s suffering as a
springboard for their potential success, a fitting vengeance for an assumed slant on
their talent (heavily implied as envy-induced madness). Upon the colleague’s
recovery, fear of their project being re-appropriated leads to the self-destructive act,
as he/she/they lay waste to the art project. In the world of the play, this is certainly the
cruelest act of all. Pool (No Water) is an examination into friendship, art, and
jealousy. The centuries old format of Revenge Tragedy helps to create this important
engaging character, despite that on the page the character is without form. Audience
sympathy for their position as the friends left behind turns into animosity at their
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violent act, regardless of the fact that no blood has been spilt. The artistic and
emotional betrayal is visceral enough.
Karen from Butcher fulfills similar goals. Her place on the pecking order is
low not only due to her withdrawal from society and her persecution, but her
passiveness allows her to be bullied by the other residents of the tower block. Her
suicidal fantasies come in the form of her hinted alcoholism and her lack of selfforgiveness (‘To live without your children, as surely as caring for them, can be
suicide in all but name.’ [Kerrigan, pg. 337], 1996), which in turn creates the distant
individual the audience sees in the opening of the play. In a twist on genre
conventions, Karen is not the agent of her newfound attention. She despises it and it
proves the final straw in her downward spiral into madness. Also, the decision to split
the interview/confession scene and spread it throughout the play should hopefully
create some conflict in the audience’s opinion of Karen. In contrast to the typical
linear progression of the genre, the regular time jump to the moment it all went wrong
juxtaposed with the chance of happiness before and the barbaric acts afterwards
should create uncomfortable questions about the biggest villain of the piece. This is
only possible by taking the conventions of ‘the Avenger’ and inverting them through
more contemporary ideas of playwriting and theatre craft. Moira Buffini applies a
similar technique in Dinner, where Paige appears as the antagonist at the beginning,
but the gradually leaked secrets of her backstory reveal her true identity as an
emotionally abused and deeply sad woman. The constant twists ensure that Revenge
Tragedy elements are just as enjoyable to a contemporary theatre audience as they
were centuries ago.
Butcher also expands on and plays with the second character archetype: The
Villain:
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Usually a king, whose private life dos not correlate with the morality
of the time. He is a very active person, who always plans intrigues against the
protagonist of the play… he is politically very powerful and competent, but,
on the other hand, always striving for more power. In order to reach his aim,
the villain proceeds in a Machiavellian and perfidious way (Kloke, pg. 11,
2007).
As touched upon earlier, Karen’s main opposition throughout the piece is
society itself, but this is personified through Linda and Martha. Linda is the more
obvious superior as a younger but more successful figure, striving for more column
inches and a wider readership. Her manipulation of Karen is Machiavellian in its
deployment, and she seems to have an emotional motivation to punish her further (she
loosely hints at a murdered sibling) which encourages her sense of justice. Martha, the
more vocal and visceral villain, demonstrates her power from her first moments
appearing in the play, where she essentially badgers Karen into letting her into the flat
and subsequently blackmailing her just so she will sign a petition. While not the
business of Kings and courtiers, Martha’s assertive presence and desire for influence
set her aside as the villain of Butcher. While she is not the source of the problem, she
is the agent that facilitates the abuse of the avenger. As such, when Karen’s grip on
really finally dissipates, Martha is the first victim. Her threats to manipulate the
community against Karen are not dissimilar to Claudius’ machinations against
Hamlet, specifically utilizing Hamlet’s murder of Polonius to turn the court’s opinion
against him, even persuading his mother that sending him away is the best solution.
This archetype probably has the most wide-reaching influence out of any in the
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Kydian Formula, and has inspired many engaging theatrical antagonists, whether
directly or indirectly.
The final character archetype is harder to define as the Revenge Tragedy has
adapted to the settings of contemporary theatre. The Avenger performs the vengeful
actions, their backstory and situation lays the foundations, but there has to be
something to give the Avenger that final piece of motivation. In Revenge Tragedy,
that character is referred to, rather straightforwardly, as The Ghost:-
The ghost in the Kydian Revenge Tragedy is the medium through
which the avenger is made familiar with the murder he is supposed to revenge.
It symbolizes that a revenge situation is a very extreme and unusual one to be
in and that revenge lies beyond human reason. The ghost is a victim as well as
a representative of death, who is also the reason for more death in the action
(Kloke, pg. 11, 2007).
Kyd’s ghost observes the plays actions from the sidelines, but they are the
specter that incites the revenge. Hamlet again contains the most well-known example,
but the distinction of the ghost character becomes harder to define in contemporary
revenge writing. The ghost ceases to be a physical presence, and more of a
metaphorical representative haunting the Avenger. Buffini’s avenger Paige is spurred
by the ghosts of her past, the relationship she had, the life that has become joyless.
She stayed with her husband Lars out of love, and that love has gone as well. The
knowledge that he is planning a divorce, and the papers that sit in his office drawer is
the final ghoulish item that pushes her into her final vengeance; forcing Lars to try
and live without her. The avengers of Pool (No Water) have a crossover in character
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tropes. Their villain is also their ghost, in that the idea of an artistic community and
success as a collective are the thoughts that inspire them to commit sadistic acts.
Karen’s ghost is much more reminiscent of the Kydian Formula, albeit more
hallucinatory poltergeists than traditional specters. Strange occurrences have been
plaguing Karen even before the beginning of Butcher, and these events increase in
intensity after Karen’s exposure (her lowest point), leading her to break with sanity
and embrace a twisted sense of empowerment. As Karen, a woman suffering from
extreme survivor’s guilt, imagines these unnerving moments, the Ghost’s actions are
far more aggressive towards the Avenger, calling out louder and louder until they are
screaming to be heard. When the sound of a baby is finally heard, the audience knows
that Karen is now set on a more sinister path. The ghost could be argued to be the
most obscured of the Kydian archetypes, but it has not been expunged entirely, it is
essential to begin the path towards the vengeful act. Once again this shows that
Revenge Tragedy methodology has not been made irrelevant, but instead it has been
adapted to challenge and surprise contemporary audiences.
Revenge Tragedy tropes have been used throughout the years not only to tell
an extraordinary tale, but also to provide insightful comment, either on society,
gender, or theatricality as a whole. Even with a simplistic and superficial analysis, it is
clear that every Revenge Tragedy by its very nature is a comment on justice. Are the
actions of the avenger just? What should have been in place to prevent the situation
from arising? What is a person capable of when pushed to their very limits? These
questions were being asked since the emergence of the genre (‘In considering the
horrific excesses of Senecan drama, it should be remembered that in the Renaissance
Seneca was also admired for his loftiness of style, sententiousness, and moral
seriousness’. [Clare, pg. 19, 2006])
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The Elizabethan playwrights expanded on these ideas with wider critical
content, but to avoid any ire from the aristocracy and Monarchy, they utilized a very
straightforward theatrical loophole; they set their works in a different country:-
Fantasies of revenge can be safely projected on an alien political and
religious culture. The Italian principalities, through popular association with
crimes of blood, in their multifaceted aspects of murder, kin, passion and will,
were the obvious choice of foreign location, and stories of crimes of passion,
often of recent memory, were mediated through a range of sources including
novella and travel writing (Clare, pg. 92, 2006).
Italy’s attitude towards family honor was the perfect fodder for tragedians of
the time, and allowed them to explore the erroneous decisions of families and
individuals focused on stature, reputation, and general communal standing. One real
life event from 1585 (the murder of the Duke of Bracciano) served as the inspiration
for John Webster’s The White Devil, but this is not just a richly retold piece of
sensationalism, but rather ‘a doomed pursuit of social mobility, as an ambitious
middle-class family attempt to invade an artisocracy which wreaks revenge upon
them for their social presumption’ (Clare, pg. 96, 2006). Francisco, the Duke of
Florence, hires the services of Count Ludovico to conduct his revenge, and upon
completion of the play, it appears that the Duke will not face any legal justice.
Meanwhile, the central female character Vittoria, is faced with a rigged trial, a fitting
punishment from the aristocracy to a woman who dared to think about joining their
ranks, regardless of the fact that their rank and base actions make them the lesser to
Vittoria’s steadfast defiance. Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi further conveys these
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ideas when the recently widowed titular character is punished by her own family
when she a man of a lesser station. Remarrying alone would have been enough to
incur the wrath of her brothers, but this social shame provokes an intense and highly
disturbing response. The Duchess’ actions would most likely have been frowned upon
by the Elizabethan audiences of the time but ‘Webster consistently presents her as
noble and courageous’ (Clare, pg. 102, 2006), revealing, for the time period, an
incredibly progressive idea regarding marriage for love over marriage for the benefit
of the family. The Duchess’ resulting torture and resilience in the face of death also
assist in making her an admirable and sympathetic character, thereby associating the
idea with a virtuous character, and the traditional values with the villains.
Karen’s struggle in Butcher is dealing more openly with a modern social issue,
the idea of trial by press, and the idea of “guilty until proven innocent”. Karen’s
mindset and manner immediately suggest to the audience that she is an innocent. The
revelation about her past and her re-telling/re-living of the event only furthers their
sympathy. When the neighborhood discovers her past, she is immediately ousted and
brutalized, leading to her unleashing mania and brutality, tragically becoming the
monster the people believed her to be. Even Bill, who she was slowly entering into a
romantic relationship with (representing a chance at a new start, a new life), rebuffs
her upon this knowledge, albeit with some confusion and reluctance. Despite her
horrifying actions towards others (and even herself) at the climax of the play, Karen
remains a tragic figure, and the characters around her are the true villains. This should
bring the audience to question their sense of judgment, and highlight the issues of
verisimilitude in print journalism.
The very methodology of the revenge can also be utilized to highlight the
societal issues, as well as form a comparison to how far gone the avenger has become.
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The Senecan model favors final vengeance at banquets, feast and gatherings for this
exact reason, as Seneca himself identified ‘a link between vengeance and excess.
Much Revenge Tragedy is structured by a grim equivalence’ (Kerrigan, pg. 115,
1996). Titus Andronicus makes a meal of his enemies, destroying them completely as
they have (through their vile act of rape) destroyed Lavinia and the inverted feast of
‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore was set to be a violent humiliation of incestuous love, but
instead Giovanni proves the excesses of his love and his egocentric thought. For The
Spanish Tragedy, Kyd focused on a method of execution that might stir up memories,
regardless of the continental setting through using reference points of the period to
highlight the wider issues in the play:
Though the Senecan influence has been well documented, critics have
paid little attention to contemporary cultural practices such as public
executions and hangings at Tyburn to explain the play’s particular fascination
with the hanged man and the mutilated and dismembered corpse. No other
play of the Renaissance stage dwells on the spectacle of hanging as Kyd’s
does, and the Senecan influence will not in itself account for the spectacular
on-stage hangings and near hanging’s in the play. (Smith, pg. 71, 1992)
This choice of execution would not only produce a shocking effect for the
audience of the time, but also prove that the social issues conveyed were not exclusive
to Spain, and were very much as relevant in Britain as the method used to dispatch the
characters. The use of particular violence to focus on issues is still being utilized in a
modern playwriting setting. In Butcher, the most heinous acts of violence are
committed on a dog, not only to highlight Karen’s impotent rage at her life and the
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people around her, but also to play on a modern audience’s fears of violence directed
at domestic animals. The incorporation of the dog into the Senecan feast scene should
highlight the horror of the act, as well as show the effect of Karen’s mistreatment. Her
life as a wife and mother was warped and perverted, and has almost inevitably led her
to this perversion of a domestic scene.
The very decision to produce all these works for the stage allow the audience
to contemplate the issues, as ‘the stage is a world which they know intimately, yet
from this safe distance they can applaud or relish or deplore successive acts of
villainy’ (Clare, pg. 55, 2006). As is always the case in a shifting theatre landscapes,
there are some exceptions to the use of meta-theatrically (Phaedra’s Love, mentioned
previously, being a particularly vibrant example), but nevertheless it is a staple
employed by writers of revenge tragedies to create depth in characters and to allow
the audience some rumination over the moralities on show.
One area of social comment that the Revenge Tragedy repeatedly returns to is
the idea of gender politics and the role of women. Women are frequently given the
role of victim, but this is not to say that the writers rendered them powerless. In fact,
many female characters conducted their own plans of revenge, or fought back against
the societies that would oppose them, or both. The very nature of a Revenge Tragedy
means that there will be a dramatic change in power and character. For the female
characters this often means a gained strength, whether utilized for good or evil. The
very action of the genre won’t allow the characters to remain unchanged. Ania
Loomba explains the transformation:
As long as [the] ideology is not in crisis, the various contradictions
imposed on women serve to destabilize the supposed fixity of patriarchal
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notions. No longer reconiled within a fixed and static whole, these
contradictions result in change, alienation, and finally resistance. (Loomba,
pg. 43, 1989).
This resistance can be seen in works predating the Senecan model. Euripides’
Medea undergoes terrible mistreatment at the hands of Jason, and as a result rejects
the typical patriarchal view of her role and becomes as cunning as any of her male
contemporaries, leading her to deplorable acts, which are still considered some of the
most villainous of any tragedy protagonist. This consideration highlights a
particularly interesting viewpoint in Revenge Tragedy, which John Kerrigan calls ‘a
heightened anxiety which attaches to female violence’ (1996, pg. 315). The
demonstration of power and assertiveness that is inherent in violence becomes all the
more shocking when wielded by a female character, because it is a display of
dominance through barbarism. Medea (a barbarian woman) does not stand idly by and
let her honor and position in Greek society slowly dwindle away, but instead fights
against her oppressor and dismantle her patriarchal confines through sheer force,
ultimately leading her into despicable acts. The archetypes set in place by this piece of
writing would inspire the creation of infinitely more female characters equipped with
agency, action, and empowerment. These characters would continue to challenge
societies views in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, as Janet Clare notes:
The female avenger was generally seen as an aberration, a symbol of a
world turned upside down, and as such, demonized. The energies of female
revenge were unnatural, depicted as more anarchic and more vociferously
condemned than those of the male counterpart. (Clare, pg. 18, 2006)
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Of course, not all female characters of Revenge Tragedy were as brutal, but
their empowerment proved to be just as shocking. For example, in The Duchess of
Malfi The Duchess undergoes torture for her crime of agency, but faces death
steadfastly, demonstrating bravery beyond the corrupt male characters. Violetta from
The White Devil is brought before a trail she has no hope of winning, and Webster
uses the opportunity to ‘compel admiration for her defiance and self-assertion’ (Clare,
2006, pg. 97), qualities that would usually be attributed to men. One of the most
striking examples of the Revenge Tragedy challenging patriarchal society is Thomas
Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling, and the characters of BeatriceJoanna and Isabella, who are (as typical for the ideology of the time) ‘imprisoned by
the institution of marriage and the authority of their patriarchal guardians’
(Malcolmson, pg.145, 1990). They plot, scheme, and manipulate to free themselves
from their pre-assigned role in society, leading not only to death and despair, but also
to very important questions about equality and mistreatment, as Christina Malcolmson
explains:
The play ruthlessly examines hierarchical relations and exposes them
as relations of power; individuals are socially superior to others not because of
their higher intelligence or morality, but because of the arbitrary factors of
birth and gender and because of the use of force. At important moments in this
play, woman are morally and intellectually superior to men, servants to
masters, and the members of the middles classes to the aristocracy. The play
appears to be dismantling the principle of hierarchy (Malcolmson, pg. 143-44,
1990).
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The issues of gender politics continue to be a relevant issue to this day, and
the extremities these characters go to in an attempt to be heard or gain respect only
highlights the difference in treatment. By taking on the role of the avenger, these
women empower themselves, shifting the focus on them, and shifting the audience’s
attention to their pain at the hands of abusive family members, spouses, and the
confines that the society has placed them into.
In Butcher, agency is inverted. Bill, the only male character in the play, is not
a man of agency. He is reactionary and relatively passive. The one key decision he
makes is to hold on to the views given to him by society and condemn Karen, which
in turn condemns him to his fate. Karen’s accusation of murdering her children is
especially important because, dating as far back as Medea, this is the most shocking
crime that a woman can commit. The perversion of the maternal role is deeply
disturbing, and a key point in signifying the level of vitriol that Karen receives. Bill
rejects her based on the idea of this perversion. After her descent into madness, Karen
embraces the idea of being a monster, the idea that society has been pushing on her
for five years, regardless of her innocence. She judges herself the way that society has
judged her, and as punishment for failing her children, she decides to attack Bill, her
one remaining chance for a stable life (potentially with a new family). She was
declared unfit to raise children, so she takes steps to prevent herself from having
more. This not only highlights the extremities of the hate rhetoric directed at such
people (even without proof), but also serves to make Karen a deeply tragic and pitiful
figure. Even in her empowerment, her guilt makes her direct some of that vengeful
rage at herself, the final piece of evidence revealing what the world at large has done
to her. This could only be accomplished through the use of Revenge Tragedy tropes.
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The extremities help reveal the smaller truths, as is the case with Beatrice-Joanna and
Medea.
In short, while the term “Revenge Tragedy” has been appropriated to the
Elizabethan and Jacobean, it importance has not diminished. The elements utilized in
them have seen the creation of some of the most three-dimensional characters in
playwriting (including Shakespeare’s most famous protagonist), as well as providing
a platform to highlight social injustices. By dipping into the excess of violence and
barbarism, playwrights throughout the ages have provided criticism of the class
system, gender politics, theocratic debate, and the corruption of politicians. These
genre elements are just as important in contemporary theatre as they were centuries
ago. Chris McMahon explains the importance of maintaining use and knowledge of
these elements:
Genre studies, regardless, are of enormous value when interpreting
tropes. Also, we owe our understanding of the force of genre to such studies.
Indeed, the most important aspect of genre studies is the way they can show us
how texts are influenced not only by texts and events in the generalized
economy but also, if not primarily, with respect to earlier texts in the genre
(McMahon, pg. 20, 2012)
The inspiration that Revenge Tragedy has provided is invaluable and essential to the
art of modern playwriting. Revenge tragedies are still regularly revived, and many
works have been the focus of modern feminist criticism for years. Revenge Tragedy
not only has relevance and a place in contemporary theatre, it makes up the
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foundations of what is contemporary theatre, proving that while the label no longer
exists, the legacy most certainly does.
Word count: 14,415
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Bibliography
Works Referenced
Allman, E. 1999. Jacobean Revenge Tragedy and the Politics of Virtue. Newark,
Del.: University of Delaware Press.
Bexley, E. 2013. Show or Tell? Seneca's and Sarah Kane's Phaedra Plays. [online]
Available at:
http://www.academia.edu/2525838/Show_or_Tell_Senecas_and_Sarah_Kanes_Phaed
ra_Plays [Accessed: 06 Sep 2013].
Buffini, M. 2002. Dinner. London: Faber.
Clare, J. 2006. Revenge Tragedies of the Renaissance. Tavistock: Northcote/British
Council.
Coleridge, E. 2013. The Internet Classics Archive | Hippolytus by Euripides. [online]
Available at: http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/hippolytus.html [Accessed: 10 Sep
2013].
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